Paladin Wings
by AzureShadowMoon
Summary: They say the bird that dares to fall is the bird that learns to fly, and Pidge plans to do just that. Not everyone is pleased with this. Snips of Pidge's somewhat crazy endeavors that reduce the team to a panicked mess, after all what are big brothers for. One-shots.
1. Chapter 1

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There are a lot of things that go through Kieth's head when he hears Pidge say over the com, "I'm going to eject."

For starters, he's absolutely sure the team is still in the atmosphere of the planet. They aren't in space and, yeah, his dashboard is telling him there is gravity. And gravity means falling. Secondly, he's not quite sure where that even _came_ from. It'd been quiet, other than Lance babbling about something he ate that was giving him a stomach ache. They'd just been touring the planet, looking for Galra influence. They'd come up short handed, thankfully, but it just made the day more boring in his eyes.

Of course, when the green lion decided to flip upside down he started to regret ever thinking that.

"Uh, Pidge?" It's Shiro, and if he had the find a person to fit the bill of 'confused but definitely not going to take that sitting down' Shiro would fit there perfectly, "Mind running that by us again?"

"Yeah." Hunk laughs, but it sounds weak. "I mean, don't get me wrong here I could just be hearing things, but it sounded like you were going to eject?"

"I did." Pidge confirms and he could practically _see_ her grin, "I'm going to eject."

"Uh!" Lance sounds just about as startled as he is, and a camera feed of the blue Paladin's face crops up on his dash. Lance is peering shrewdly at the camera, "Pidge! Quit playing around, we have to get back to the castle."

"Lance is right." Kieth pipes up, deciding adding his two cents might make a difference. "We've got other planets to search."

"I second that!" Hunk called.

There's a lengthy pause and he's sure that's the end of it, because the very idea is ludicrous. Maybe Pidge was just annoyed with something, and it'd been a joke? But Pidge wasn't one to just abandon ship. Besides Lance's stupidity and Hunk's panicky nature, Pidge was the only other level headed person he saw besides Shiro.

But then again. The green lion was still upside down.

"Pidge?" Shiro sounds only an octave away from a reprimanding parent.

"Yeah, yeah." Kieth holds his breath as he hears the green Paladin chuckle. "Trust me. It'll only be a second."

And the green lion flips one more time, only its mouth opens mid twirl. Kieth feel his gut drop, because the lions only ever open their mouth if-

And Pidge is falling.

There is a single, stunned second where Kieth is left staring forward in disbelief. To the side he sees the Yellow lion pitch to a halt, nearly summersaulting forward with momentum. The other lions stop to, facing the empty green lion.

Empty

"OH MY GOD!" Lance is the first to action, the blue lion squaring downwards into a nose dive. Kieth was hot on his heels, the red lion slowly taking over with speed. The downwards thrust was almost familiar, but he ignored the nostalgia in favor that his teammate was _plummeting._

"Catch her guys!" Hunk yells from behind, the bulky lion not a match for their speed. He faintly hears the black lion roar from behind them, right on their tails. He could hear Lance making some squeaky noise.

"Eject? _Eject_? Are you kidding me?!" The blue paladin shouts. "Pidge!"

"Yeah?" It's almost startling how nonchalant she sound over the com, despite free falling down to the surface in nothing but her suit. Far below, he barely makes her out through the clouds. He wasn't sure how far the ground was, but accelerated, feeling his heart hammering in his ears.

"Don't _yeah_ me!" Lance's voice cracked. "What are you doing?! Stop falling!"

"I can't stop falling." She says. "That's impossible. Did you even attend third grade?"

" _Pidge_!" Hunk's voice crackles in his ear, barely being made out through the yellow Paladin's own sobs. "I'm going to be sick fall _up_ or something!"

"Pidge, hang on!" Shiro is shooting forward, a boost from the thrusters sending the black lion roaring past him and Lance, right up to their target. "Grab on!"

He can't see what happens next, only notices that the clouds part, revealing the ground to be as startlingly close as he feared. There was a cliff face far down below. And they were rocketing towards it.

"Shiro, she's going to hit the ground at this rate!" He yells. "Catch her!"

He makes out the frustrated grunt from their leader, but it's outshined by Pidge's long suffering sigh.

"Alright, alright." He can imagine her pouting. "Fine. Funs over."

"Fun?!" Lance and Hunk cry.

He opens his mouth, but clamps it shut when a small figure darts away from the black lion. It's green and impossibly tiny compared to the giant robot, but it isn't falling anymore. It's Pidge.

She has wings.

"Oh, wait, what-"

Lance is cut off and Kieth pitches forward, his head nearly hitting the window from the force of imbedding his lion into the cliff. He squawks and ends up tangled with his chair, hearing Lance have the same predicament. He can make out the large crashes of Hunk and Shiro landing their lions much more safely nearby. It takes a moment to re-orientate himself, and when he does he sees a grinning Pidge standing besides the black lion. _Safe._

"Thank goodness." He hears Lance groan. "Pidge, warn us before inducing heart attacks!"

"What?" She blinks up at them from the ground, once again looking like an insect. "I said I was going to eject."

"You don't _do_ that." Kieth managed, feeling overwhelmed. The excitement was humming in the air still and he still felt like at any moment Pidge would start falling up and they'd have to renew their chase. But she remained where she was, holding up an arm experimentally to reveal the tightly woven black Velcro of a bootleg wing she'd hooked to her suit. It looked half made, with a nice tear in on the side of it. His stomach flopped, but Shiro spoke before he could.

"Pidge, that was dangerous. What were you thinking?"

"I was just testing them out." She flapped them experimentally. "They work fine!"

"Fine? _Fine?"_ Lance pops up on the camera feed again, flailing around. "You were almost made into a pancake! You could have told us you had a flight suit made, or something! We thought you were going to- to-"

"That'd I'd eject without a parachute?" He got the impression she was squinting at Lance's stupidity. "Who does that?"

"I don't know!"

"I'm a mess of emotions!" Hunk is still crying, "That was too scary!"

"I thought for sure…" Kieth sat back in his chair, resting a hand on his forehead to calm the building headache. He was never jinxing himself again, not in Pidge's company at least. The thought was hard to finish. The green lion makes its appearance by landing softly next to Hunk, crouching down for its pilot.

He hears Shiro sigh wearily, "Pidge, please be careful next time. Some communication would be nice."

He sees Pidge hesitant at the mouth of the lion, "You guys were that worried?"

"Yes!" He sees Lance throw his hands in the air, "You scared me half to death, you know? I'm not going to get over this! What if that suit hadn't have worked?!"

"Uh." He can practically see her sheepish grin. "Shiro would have caught me, right?"

"Pidge." Parental mode had been activated.

Kieth exhales through his nose, running a hand through his hair, "Shiro's right. You can't leap head first into something like that. Tell us first, so we can make some safety precautions."

"What Kieth said!" Hunk's lion tosses its head back and forth, almost like a fit. Pidge pilots the green lions head up to complete their circle.

"…Okay." Pidge mutters. "I might have went overboard. Sorry, for worrying you guys."

"You're forgiven." Lance crosses his arms on his monitor. "But seriously, do it over a lake or something next time."

"Or not at all." Hunk whines. "That sounds fun too."

Kieth snorts as Shiro directs them up again, flying back through the clouds they'd torn through in their haste. The post-adrenaline high was giving him a headache. He sees the green lion dip in front of him, almost smugly, and Pidge laughs.

"Alright, alright." His monitor shows her with a wide, but pleased grin. "I can even make some for you guys!"

He could feel the cringe from everyone but the green Paladin.

"Uh."

"Um, right…"

"It's kind of late…"

"We're gonna need a rain check on that." Shiro's voice is colored with amusement. Pidge laughs again, and he feels himself smile when Shiro says, "I think we've all done enough falling today."

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	2. Chapter 2

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Hunk was having a dilemma.

Dinner had been a blast. He'd managed to find something in the ships kitchen that _might_ have been seasoning, but for all the world looked like someone had taken a rusty spoon to yogurt. While the 'seasoning' hadn't been a bright idea to put on some cherry flavored goop, apparently when fired under mild lion lasers it tasted, according to Lance 'just enough to not gag on'. Coming from the guy, Hunk couldn't stop the goofy grin- because _compliments._ He loved them. Even Kieth had given him a thumbs up over Shiro inhaling his food.

Except.

Pidge wasn't at dinner.

Again.

He crossed his arms, staring thoughtfully at the untouched plate on the dining table. The Alteans had long since retired from a long day of sciency stuff to the castle, stuff that went right over Hunk's head. Lance was complaining about his foot- "Shiro, why the invisible stairs?"- and Kieth had hit his limit on 'Lance time'. He was gone before Shiro could say good night, leaving Hunk to clean up the mess of a good meal.

Well, almost all of it. Pidge had yet to show up. While that wasn't uncommon for Pidge to shirk meals, he didn't like the feeling of throwing away another untouched plate- for the third time in a row! Good food didn't go to waste, at least not on his watch.

"Maybe it's the seasoning?" He tilted his head from side to side to, scratching his chin. "Or maybe they don't like goop?"

" _I like peanut butter cookies."_

Hunk pursed his lips, picking up the plate and leveling it with a dry look. The cherry goop made a wiggly motion, the rusty looking slime on top giving it the look of ice cream covered in barbeque sauce. Compared to earth food, well, even Hunk had to admit it wasn't the chefs finest. But it could be good, and tolerable, and even _Lance compliment worthy._

So, what could the problem be?

"Maybe there isn't one." He mused, shaking the plate to watch the goop. "Maybe Pidge just fell asleep early? Or, maybe maybe, they just got too busy again. Maybe they aren't hungry?"

That last one was unlikely. When even was the last time Pidge ate?

That made him pause. He thought back to that morning. It had been blue goop, Lance's suggestion. Everyone had been there even the mice. No Pidge- "Sorry guys, I got distracted by this cool relay coil, it can transmit little messages to and fro for hours!"- and the night before too, no Pidge. It hadn't been a problem at first. But now? Just what was Pidge eating? Dust? _Was Pidge eating the mice oh my goodness-_

"Okay." He patted his head with exasperation. "Let's not go there. Let's just, uh, bring her the food! Yeah! She can't skip out then, or, uh, yeah."

Hunk nodded to himself. Finding his way out of the dining hall to Pidge's room wasn't a problem. The problem came when he knocked on the green Paladin's door and no one answered. Hunk wasn't an idiot to barge into the room, _Pidge's_ room no less. It had nothing to do with Pidge being a girl or even her short temper. It was entirely about the weird, whirly gadgets and papers that scattered her room. One miss step and he could loss a toe, or topple something over that'll have Pidge scornful for _days._

He gulped.

"Uh, hey, Pidge? I have dinner! Since, you know, you never showed up. It's cool! I mean, it's not like I worked hard on it or anything."

Nothing.

He tapped his foot, looking from left to right impatiently. Pidge wasn't someone to not answer her door, but if she was asleep it wasn't in his conscious just to wake her up for food. But from the looks of it, her room was silent and lacking a Paladin.

 _The hanger._ Hunk straightened his back and narrowed his eyes, taking a step forward in determination. _The green lion hanger!_

Sure enough, he found her there. She was at her makeshift desk, piled together from Altean crates and boxes, with a spindly crystal offering the barest of light in the dark hangar. The shadow of the green robot loomed overhead, glowing yellow eyes staring forward over its pilot. Pidge was mercilessly typing away at her computer, the little lab top surviving thick and thin to make it all the way here in space with Pidge.

"Oh, hey Hunk." The green Paladin rubs her eyes, pushing her glasses aside for a jaw cracking yawn. "What's up?"

"Food." He makes a show of waving the plate around, nearly pushing the goop under her nose. "Food is up! Pidge, how long have you been here?"

She slowly blinks, squinting at him like a puzzle she'd never seen before. She turns her head to her computer, readjusting her glasses. Another moment passes before her head drops to the desk with a _thwak_.

"Shoot, Hunk, I didn't realize it was this late." She looks up with a sheepish grin. "You didn't bring that all the way for me, did you?"

"Duh." He places it next to the lab top with a triumphant huff. "Seriously though, turn on some lights. It's like my basement in here."

"Your basement?" She echoes, already grabbing her plate and descending upon it as vigorously as Shiro had.

He waved his hand saucily, "Yeah, my basement. Back on Earth? It was real creepy."

"Oh."

He raised an eyebrow as she took a large bite, eyes firmly resting on her keyboard. He'd seen the same thing happen with Lance, who'd close off or get agitated. He hummed and reached over, ruffling her unruly helmet hair.

"Wha- hey, Hunk, c'mon!"

"Cheer up!" He grinned. "My food isn't that bad. Next time, come enjoy it with the rest of us, okay? No hanging around creepy Hunk's basement 2.0, or else."

"Yeah, yeah." She fixed her hair, patting it down and giving him a soft smile. "Thanks Hunk. I'll try to be more punctual next time."

"Awesome." He shifted his eyes to the lion and leaned into whisper. "Because Kieth isn't letting me use red anymore to fry food. Can I use green?"

She laughed, "As long as I get to fire the lasers!"

"You got it!"

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End file.
